Yellowstone part 2

"There is something in the wild scenery of this valley which I cannot describe: but the impressions made upon my mind while gazing from a high eminence on the surrounding landscape one evening as the sun was gently gliding behind the western mountain and casting its gigantic shadows across the vale were such as time can never efface.  For my own part I almost wished I could spend the remainder of my days in a place like this where happiness and contentment seemed to reign in wild romantic splendor" - Lamar Valley, Osborne Russell 1835

The first white explorers of the Yellowstone region (fur-trappers & mountain men) were called liars and fools for making up such laughable stories about bubbling mud, colorful pools and steaming geysers. Six decades later, a geologist, a photographer, and a painter, returned from a successful expedition with visual proof. 

People began to take notice. Only under the impression that this rugged, boiling, unstable land held no use for farmland or economical development, congress agreed to set it aside as a public "pleasuring ground." In 1872 President Grant signed the bill, creating the first National Park in the history of the world.

We hiked to Fairy Falls...

...continued on to the Imperial Geyser (no boardwalks here!)

...then turned around and headed back through the meadow and past Fairy Falls again...

...where we sat in the shade and had lunch. It was like sitting at the foot of an altar. Except that we were harassed by this fat chipmunk the whole time.

Then we climbed up a hill/mountain on an unmarked trail to be rewarded with this fantastic view of the Grand Prismatic Pool. Just incredible! Nothing like it in the world!

We met some nice people up at the top - what a place to make friends! One of the women must have been a professional photographer, she took this fantastic picture for us. Great memories :)

Splendid Geyser with her splendid rainbow

Punch Bowl Spring

Morning Glory Pool.

EVERY YEAR park personnel remove hundreds of rocks, coins, and other objects from Morning Glory Pool.

"Morning Glory Pool is losing its brilliant color. Through ignorance and vandalism, people have tossed objects into the hot spring, clogging it's vent and lowering the temperature. Brown, orange, and yellow algae-like bacteria thrive in the cooler water, gradually turning the vivid aqua-blue to a murkier greenish-brown.
All thermal features are at risk. Hot springs and geysers have fragile, complex plumbing that takes centuries to develop. Morning Glory's future is uncertain; you can help by immediately reporting any vandalism."

Ignorance indeed. So infuriating. We decided that we'd put our bear spray to good use if we ever witnessed vandalism.



The park is ever-changing. This section of the Artemisia Trail was swallowed up by the thermal pools! The sign says "unsafe trail, new trail about 20 yards --> stay on trail, thank you!"

More Yellowstone to come!

Upper Left

Oh boy, I'm getting very behind on blogging our travels. I hate to gloss over so much (though it's a constant reality of fulltime travel) but I'll just say that we love Washington. We stayed on the edge of town but got to spend a good amount of time in Port Angeles throughout our visit to Olymic NP. And thanks to the phenomenal Olympic Discovery Trail, we were able to easily explore by bike. Washington is full of great local business (breweries, wineries, and MOSS - which is now selling my handmade jewelry!), bike/hiking trails, nature reserves and restored wilderness areas. We were busy!


Canada through the mist


We also got to meet up with my friend Denise and her husband in Seattle. We had a great time catching up, touring the city, and getting the hang of travel by ferry.

Bench/shrine for Kurt Cobain


Pike Place Farmer's Market has been continuously operating since 1907


Seattle has the weirdest history ("let's built a city on this floodplain" - hilarity ensues)
These are "skylights" in the sidewalk


And here is the underground view! Denise and Kyung treated us to some fun tours, and we got a pretty good intro to the culture and history of Seattle.

We visited the Dungeness Spit, but were too cold and tired that day to hike the whole thing before high tide (the spit is 5.5 miles long!). We just explored the various driftwood shelters, stone cairns, and did some bird watching - bald eagles!




We hiked to Sol Duc Falls and up along the River Trail.


Art hike! Webster's Woods in Port Angeles is a pretty special place.

Lake Crescent

Next: More mountains and volcanoes

The Hoh Rainforest - Olympic National Park

The Hoh Rainforest is a temperate rainforest in Olympic National Park. I was really excited to visit because I had written a report on the Hoh Rainforest when I was in 6th (7th?) grade. The report was actually supposed to be about the Hoh Indian Tribe, but between the library and the young internet, I found next to NO information whatsoever on the people...so instead I mostly just talked about their environment, the Hoh Rainforest. It was neat to finally see, smell, experience something that was just a far-away concept to me ever since my middle school days. Honestly, we were bummed that it was a glorious, sun-shiny day. I wanted rain! Or at least some clouds. Everything seemed a little bit thirsty, but as the sun machine came down, things got all nice and cool and a lot more mystic. 

We hiked to 5 Mile Island, and a quick jaunt through the Hall of Mosses, but first stop - the visitor center. These nature center/bookstore/museums are the best. I always go a little (a lot) crazy over the dioramas, graphic design and illustrations.

Futura!

Me with the trees




Drippy moss curtains

The Hoh River is a gorgeous milky blue. I've never seen a river this color before.

5 MI. IS.
love these arrowheads

Everything grows incredibly fast. As soon as a tree falls, it's overtaken with moss and lichens and other small trees, providing nutrients to the young plants. These are called nurse logs. Once the new trees' roots reach around either side of the nurse log, and into the ground, they really take off growing. The nurse log eventually decays, leaving behind a row of trees that are about the same age, and typically in some crazy magic-doorway shape. It's very cool to understand, and see each stage of this process.

A little forest on a nurse log

Super dense growth, another nurse log

Ferns everywhere

A lot of this going on. You can't sit still for too long, or something will start growing on you... Our friend Tracy from Oregon says everything is so mossy, moist, and grows so fast, some people find little trees growing on their cars!

Hey slug, you're gross!

Mossy crescent moon log

Along the trail

 I don't know what this is. Fungi of sorts?

Here be wizards

dreamy

Olympic National Park, Hurricane Ridge

We were able to spend a week exploring Olympic National Park while we stayed at a park in Port Angeles, WA. Our first day in the park, was like every other one of our first days in the National Parks...first it's all excitement and awe as you drive through the gates, flash your pass, get your map, drive in and be funneled into the driver's "highlight reel" of the park. Which is absolutely stunning, of course, but...not the solitude we're looking for.

Hurricane Ridge

And to my left...

We jumped on the first trailhead we saw, fewer people, but still busy. We could see Canada out there past the water.

We didn't want to waste much time in the crowds so we immediately turned around and headed back down the mountain. The funny thing we've found about hiking trails is that you have to be a little bit in the know...you have to be searching for them. Most national park guides will have the paved nature trails, the family friendly trails, and perhaps a few day hikes marked out, but typically that's it. The good stuff is a little bit secret, or just simply overlooked by most. I suppose one could do more research beforehand, but apparently that's not our style, ha.

Thanks to a friendly ranger, we were able to find this trailhead that was actually just before the Hurricane Ridge gate. We only hiked to Lake Angeles, but we were racing the sun, uphill the whole way.

Quiet.

Mossy

Subalpine forest

Lake Angeles. Just amazing. Mountain lakes are the best.


pretty island in the middle

We didn't have too much time to explore the lake, so we just climbed out on this mess of logs, and settled down for dinner (it was another trail mix and cliff bar type of day :)

We had been getting caught up in weird silk-worm strings most of the way up, even our spider-swords were futile (a spider sword is a stick you wave in front of yourself as you walk. It catches spider webs, so your face doesn't have to. It doesn't make you look silly at all.) It wasn't so bad though, just a little gross and annoying. It didn't stick like spider webs, and on the way back down it had all cleared up. The season was over I guess? It made the forest glimmer in the setting sun though. This was a particularly webby branch. Is this where the term fairy floss comes from?

A handrail! Not all the bridges we've come across are so accommodating. Ed demonstrates this amenity while representing LBD and  the Clubhouse.

A successful introduction to Olympic State Park. Rainforests and beaches to come...